Is It Alright?
by The Face Of Icecream Pick
Summary: Aoshi goes to Tokyo on an errand, visiting Kenshin who is missing something in his life.


Okay, to start off, I don't have any idea of what I am doing. In truth, I don't know what I'm writing or for what category it'll be, but all I know is that it will be something, and hopefully it'll be awesome. Of course, by the time you read this, you'll know what it's about because of the summary and such, and the story will be complete with end notes, and all that good stuff, but as of right now, which will be a ways into the past when you read this, I got no clue what this is about yet. I'll just figure it out a little later and see how it is. One thing I do know for sure, though, is that, no matter what plotline I choose, I do not, by any means, own the characters. They belong to their respectable owners and that is why they are famous. Yes, now lets continue to where we should be... the beginning of this fic.

"_I don't remember it ever being like this. Everything used to make so much more sense up until now. I used to be able to walk through our small town, not having to think of anything important, and live the normal life that I had wanted for so long. I never wanted this to happen, but it's almost as if misfortune always finds its way to me, and I will never be able to evade it. Perhaps, if I close my eyes and breathe, all of it will go away. I just want it to go away."_

---

Kenshin stared at one of the rocks on the outside of the Kamiya dojo, lost in thought. It had been so peaceful for a long time

now, a peace that Kenshin had longed for ever since he could remember. He had been there at the dojo longer than he had been anyplace else, excluding his former lives when he had lived with his parents those precious few years before they had died, and with his master who had saved him and taken him in. Since then, he had been constantly moving, and never staying in one place for very long. He had actually become comfortable in calling this place his home, and such a feeling he found very reassuring. Still, it was as if something was missing, though he wasn't sure what it was. Perhaps it really didn't matter, but he would have liked to have known all the same.

It was Kaoru's voice that broke the silence of the dojo grounds, much as it always was. It was always a great way to shatter any stable train of thought that one might be dwelling on, and this time was no different.

"Yahiko! You've got to hold up your defense! How can you ever become a true master of the Kamiya-kasshin style if you only work from an aggressive angle?!" Yet again, it seemed that Yahiko was being scolded for his form, and criticism was something that the young boy was never able to take well.

"What you talking about, ya old hag?" he shouted, amazingly louder than his teacher, "I'm improving your style, that's why I'm doing that!"

"What do you mean improving?! There is nothing to improve!" Kaoru and Yahiko began their ritual morning squabble, to which Kenshin sighed. It figured he'd have to break this one up too, something he did every morning. He got up from where he had been sitting and walked to the other side of the dojo to find the two in a stick war.

"Now now, fighting won't solve anything, that it will not," he said as he placed himself between the both of them, "I think maybe taking a quick break and having some tea will calm you both down, indeed I do."

"Oh Kenshin," Kaoru said in a gruff manner, "Don't you think that we can settle our own differences?"

"Well yes, Miss Kaoru, but-"

"Don't but me," she interrupted, "You always go off treating me like a child, but I'll have you know that I am fully grown up and I don't need you telling me to settle down! Further more-"

Kenshin stood there, knowing full well that there would be no escape from this lecture for a very long time, and only a miracle could save him from one of Kaoru's sermons. Fortunately enough for him, that miracle made itself present in the form of a very hungry Sanosuke, strutting on in for his daily grub-bum routine.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Sanosuke looked from Kenshin's pleading face to Kaoru's angry one and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Of course, he normally wouldn't involve himself in one of the arguments, but he owed Kenshin one for saving him from some overly large woman who had wanted him to marry her daughter, so he made his way through.

"Hey, missy, I'm hungry. Can you get me some food?"

Kaoru looked over at Sanosuke in a moment of absolute fury. Kenshin made his way inside of the dojo as Kaoru began to mentally pummel the rooster head with her speak on how food bumming poor guys are what make the world a worse place. Once inside, Kenshin looked to see that his list for the market had already been put out for him. It was about that time when he'd need to get the supplies for the day, so he figured it would probably be best to go now and let things cool off for a bit. He grabbed one of his best friends, the tofu bucket to which he had bonded to over the time he had been there, and left for town.

It was rather quiet that day in town. The streets had an adequate number of people, but they were far from filled. The venders sat back fanning themselves, looking bored stiff due to the lack of customers. Kenshin walked to the ever familiar tofu cart, ready to get his regular selection. After making his purchase, he turned to walk down the street some more, trying to locate the spice cart for a new recipe that Kaoru wanted to try out. Kenshin shuddered at the thought, and tried to hold back the tears for the loss of good food. Sure she was a nice girl, and he liked her for that, but her cooking skills were sure to be the death of him.

Not paying attention to where he was going, he walked right into a man, lost grip of his tofu, and watched it hit the ground.

"I'm sorry sir," he said, bowing quickly, "I wasn't looking where I was going and-"

"It's not like you to be so unaware, Himura."

That voice... it was so familiar. Kenshin looked up at the man he had walked into. "Oh, Aoshi! What are you doing here in Tokyo?"

Aoshi nodded, acknowledging Kenshin's presence, and then spoke. "It seems that since you were last in Kyoto on a visit, Miss Kamiya left a set of brushes, and I have come to return them."

"I'm surprised you went through the trouble," said Kenshin, "I mean, you could have simply sent them by delivery to make it easier for yourself. Or is there another reason for your visit?"

"I thought that I would enjoy being away from Kyoto for a while," Aoshi replied, looking at the wasted tofu on the ground, "I'll recompense you for that, if you like."

Kenshin shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I should have been more careful." He then went back to the stand to get more tofu, followed by purchasing the spices needed for Kaoru's newest monstrosity, Aoshi following close behind him. Kenshin stood in his tracks, remembering that he should warn Aoshi of the present circumstances before it was too late.

"Um, Aoshi? I just thought you should know ahead of time that you are fully welcome to stay but, eh," Kenshin scratched his head, not wanting to seem like he thought of his visitor as an unwanted guest, "well, to put it bluntly, Kaoru's cooking tonight with a new recipe so there's a good chance that you might get food poisoning."

Aoshi winced at the mentioning of Kaoru's cooking. Once before when she had visited the Oniwaban in Kyoto she had decided to make dinner, and had added a lot of sake, unaware of his intolerance of liquor. The painful experience was still haunting him, and had not even been able to look at an empty sake jug without becoming faint or nauscious.

Kenshin, being quite aware of the event, easily figured out the connection Aoshi had made, and hoped this wouldn't put him out too much.

"If you like, I'm sure I could talk Miss Kaoru into eating out tonight," he offered, thinking it might be for the best. Aoshi, however, shook his head.

"No, that's alright. I can suffer one night."

What a cold thing to say, Kenshin thought, yet he couldn't suppress a slight chuckle.

When they returned to the dojo, Kaoru was surprised to see Aoshi there, as was Yahiko. Sanosuke probably would have been slightly shocked, too, if it weren't for the fact that he had gotten into a bit of sake earlier, and was now passed out on the ground. Aoshi took one look at the liquor jars and felt that he might soon be joining the messy haired man in his unconscious state. He held his breath as Kenshin ushered him inside the dojo, and he felt relieved once the red head had shut the sliding door.

"Ah, Mr. Shinomori. It's so nice to see you," Kaoru greeted him, "What brings you here to Tokyo?"

Aoshi took the brushed wrapped in light packaging from his coat and handed it to her. "You left these on your last visit. I thought you might want them."

Kaoru took the package from Aoshi and made a slight bow. "Thank you very much. It's very kind of you to have come all this way to deliver this to me."

"Miss Kaoru," Kenshin said, "Aoshi will be staying here for the night. Could you have a room ready for him?"

"Oh yes, of course." She made a bow once more and left the room. Aoshi watched her as she did so, and then turned his attention back to Kenshin.

"She seems well."

"Yes, she always seems to be in high spirits," Kenshin replied, trying his best not to remember her bickering with Yahiko and her 'I'm a woman' speech. Her spirits were indeed high.

"I assume that you'll be engaged soon, if not already?" Kenshin looked at Aoshi in surprise. He really hadn't thought about it. He'd been so busy trying to make up for lost time that pursuing a love life hadn't truly entered his mind.

"I don't have any plans of yet," Kenshin said, not really knowing where the question had come from, "Out of curiosity, why do you ask?"

Aoshi looked back at the door. "No reason."

It wasn't very long that everything was prepared. Yahiko had retired from his practice for the day, and Sanosuke had woken up with a fairly bad hangover. Kenshin and Aoshi had exited the room to the outside where they were immediately swarmed by an anxious Kaoru.

"Mr. Shinomori," she began hopefully, which Aoshi knew was a sure sign of a bad omen, "You came at the perfect time. I have a real treat in store for you!"

"Oh?" He didn't even bother to attempt to sound enthusiastic, but this didn't faze her at all. After all, this was Aoshi. He was never enthusiastic about anything.

She smiled and nodded. "Yep! Tonight I'll be preparing a new dish, the recipe to which I personally made up. I hope that you will enjoy it."

Those words, 'I personally made up.' Kenshin held back a shudder to think of what horrid things she had in store for them. Aoshi closed his eyes, hoping that he might wake up from a bad dream and find himself elsewhere. Unfortunately, his tactic failed him.

Kaoru began to retreat to the cooking area, only to look over her shoulder happily and say, "Now don't go wandering to far off! It'll be done in an hour or so." Kenshin nodded; Aoshi stood there. This was the perfect time to escape.

Kenshin walked out the back gate, Aoshi behind him. If they could find something, ANYTHING that would be a good excuse for occupying them past the point of the dinner hour, they would be more than willing to get their hands into it. Sadly, Tokyo had been very quiet lately, and there was no such luck in store for them. They walked by the river's edge sorrowfully, not wanting to think of what fate had saved for them.

"Is there, by any chance, that Miss Kamiya has improved in her culinary skills since my last time seeing her?" Aoshi asked, some what hopefully, but unhappily already knowing the answer to his question.

"Well," Kenshin, being the optimistic person that he is, tried to put a good light on the situation, "She probably won't put two jugs of sake in it this time."

No, neither of them held too much hope for their situation, which was quickly drawing closer. It felt as if the hour had gone by in moments, and they already had to return to the dojo.

"You're back right on time," Kaoru said happily as she met them at the back gate, "Dinner's ready!" Kenshin gulped, Aoshi twitched, and they both followed Kaoru who was totally oblivious to their lack of enthusiasm. When they sat down, they found that Yahiko and Sanosuke were nowhere in sight. Kaoru sighed unhappily.

"Sanosuke said that he had an urgent errand to run and that he needed Yahiko's help with it," she said, "It's too bad because I made enough so that everyone could have second helpings. Well, I guess you guys will have to eat more than your share because I don't want anything to go to waste."

What she didn't know was tha it was to late. The food had been wasted once it had fallen into her deadly grasp. Aoshi and Kenshin stared in horror at the brownish green blob that sat before them. Chunks of various mystery items poked out of it's slimy mass, but none of it could be identified. At one point, Kenshin could have sworn that one of the globs had moved, and that whatever was in it was still partially alive.

"Well? Dig in!" She said impatiently, wanting to know what they thought of her masterpiece. Aoshi looked at her.

"Is there, by chance, any meat of fish in this?" He asked, to which Kaoru nodded.

"Yeah. There's some fish that Yahiko had caught earlier today."

To this Aoshi mocked a sigh of disappointment. "That's too bad," he said sorrowfully, "I was looking forward to it, but ever since our last mission together, I swore to myself that I would never be responsible for the death of another living thing again, my food included. I believe that Kenshin will have to eat my share as well."

Kaoru's head drooped, "Oh... that's too bad. I didn't even think of asking before I made it. I don't know what else I can give you."

"Don't worry," he said reassuringly, "I ate well before I came. I'll be fine until tomorrow."

Kenshin looked at him with pure jealousy. Though Aoshi may have reformed his ways to an extent, Kenshin knew for certain that he had no qualms whatsoever for eating meat. Sadly, Kaoru didn't know Aoshi well enough to know that, and he would get away safely. Kenshin tried not to cry as he choked down the slop that had been prepared, telling Kaoru how great it was all the while as to make sure he wouldn't be lectured yet again.

After the treacherous feast, Kenshin hurried into his room, so that he might be able to huddle into a little ball and whimper from the acid break down of his stomach lining, which was more than likely occuring at the moment. Meanwhile, Sanosuke and Yahiko had returned from their imaginary errand, one of which they could not divulge the contents of to the ever curious Kaoru, who wanted to know why it was they had to run off so quickly.

"I'm sorry, missy," Sanosuke said in an authoritative manner, "I'm afraid I cannot tell you what it was we were doing, on account of the fact that your life might be in danger if you knew."

"Stop acting like a cop and spit it out already," she shouted at him, waving her wooden sword menacingly. Sanosuke, finding that he needed to change the topic as soon as possible, noticed Aoshi sitting on the dojo steps, and thanked lady luck on smiling upon him for once in his life.

"Hey Aoshi, tell this girl to stop meddling in other people's business," the rooster head commanded, thinking that Aoshi's superiority would quiet the angry woman down. Aoshi, on the other hand, was not as oblidging as that.

"........"

"Don't you ever talk? Say something!"

Aoshi continued to sit there, silent as the grave. Sanosuke now knew that he would get no support from his mute acquaintance, and he still had Kaoru breathing fiercely down his neck. He was now down to his second to last resort, his very last being him attempting to make up a story about how much he loved her ever since he met her, in hopes of buttering her up. Of course, that might lead to commitment later down the road if he weren't careful, so he thought that his second would be better... sacrifice others for the better of the common good, aka: him.

"Before you go on, I just thought you should know... Yahiko's been wearing your underwear!"

Kaoru's face turned a pale white as she turned her gaze to the adolescent. "Y-you've been WHAT?!" Yahiko, not having been paying attention to the conversation that had taken place before hand, didn't understand what she was suddenly so mad about... then it hit him. She had found the pornographic pictures of Tsubame he had been able to bribe Katsu for with some money he had pinched. Sure, he was from a family of noble samurai, but when a guy needs porn, a guy NEEDS porn, and nothing will get in the way of that.

Yahiko looked at Kaoru in a very pissed manner for having gone through his things. "Well I'm sorry if all guys do stuff like that, so you should just get used to it."

Sanosuke's eyes bulged a bit. He hadn't really thought that he had guessed right, and had just been bluffing to shut the lady up. Wow, what a juicy piece of information. That could come in handy in the near future as blackmail.

Kaoru was also somewhat surprised. All guys tried on women's underwear. When she was gone teaching lessons, was that what the guys were doing? Images of Sanosuke, Kenshin, and Yahiko having a panties party flew through her mind, to which she found to be totally disgusting... though Kenshin in lace might be pretty hot.... NO! IT WAS BAD!! Frilly pink lace... WRONG!!!

"Yahiko, I don't want you going through those things ever again, you hear me?!"

"Don't waste your breath."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Aoshi couldn't take it much longer. All of the screaming and yelling, mixed with the weirdness of little boys wearing women's panties; it was just too much. He went inside the dojo, as to get away from all of the noise and a thought occurred to him. He went to Kenshin's room.

As for Kenshin, he had been able to keep down the nastiness of the so-called 'meal' and was laying on his back, trying not to agitate his stomach. It was getting dark now, and soon everyone would be calling it a night and going to bed. It wasn't like Aoshi caused much excitement in the dojo, seeing as how he was always so silent and unhappy looking. Still, at one point during the day, there had been something strange in the way he had looked at Kenshin, which the rurouni could not identify. On any other person, it would have been easy to identify, but knowing that Aoshi did not seem to be a man of many emotions, it was harder to pinpoint when a new look in his eyes was displayed. It wasn't like it mattered, though. It really wasn't his concern, so it would probably be better dropped.

It was around then that Aoshi entered his room, first knocking, of course, because one can never be too polite in another's abode. He looked at Kenshin and sat down in front of him.

"Um, Aoshi, what can I do for you?"

Aoshi looked at the tatami mat that he sat upon, not looking like he was in a huge contemplation mode, but just had a little bit on his mind. He threw his words carelessly, "I didn't feel like being alone, so may I stay here with you tonight?" He made contact with Kenshin, who really wasn't sure what he meant by that. Well, to be more specific, he knew what he meant, but why he meant it was what was in question. A grown man like him wouldn't seem to have qualms staying alone during the night, so why it was that he wished to be with him was strange.

"Kenshin, don't think about it too hard," the man said calmly, "It's a common question to be asked when it involves someone the asker feels for."

"Feels for?"

Something still wasn't hitting him. Kenshin looked at Aoshi harder, trying to find any answers in his facial expression, but there were none. He knew what that meant when a guy says that to a girl, but in this situation with comrades, he must have another meaning.

Aoshi took the hint that Kenshin had no idea what he was talking about and sighed. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure out, so it was obvious that he was over analyzing the situation. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against Kenshin's mouth. It was over no more sooner than it began, and Kenshin looked at him, totally dazed. There was really no more thinking to be done, and the black haired man had answered his questions quite well in that one notion, though he had never seen that answer coming.

"Aoshi, I don't understand. Why?"

"Tell me, does anyone understand what their heart makes them feel?"

"I guess not," he looked at one of Aoshi's hand's for no particular reason, but was not sure what to think in this moment. He wasn't against the thought of being with him, but he had never really thought about an actual relationship, and this was the first time it had ever been brought to consideration. Still, it was getting late, and the time to think was not now. He notioned to the corner of the room.

"The bedding is there, but it's only big enough for one person. You might want to get yours and move it into hear if you still plan to stay."

Aoshi nodded and left the room. It wasn't too long before he returned with his bedding and he placed it next to Kenshin's, though the red head did not seem to mind. So, as the night progressed, Aoshi wrapped his arms around the smaller man, bringing him close, feeling the beating of each other's hearts, and soon drifted to sleep. Kenshin followed him not to long after, but not before wondering if perhaps this was what he had been missing only a few hours before.

Okay, first Kenshin fic has now been completed. Yay! I will be updating this if you like it, but ya gotta review otherwise I won't know if I should or not. The rating will probably go up as the chapters continue, but for now it's clean. Actually, there's a good chance that'll change, unless directed otherwise. Until the next installment, Laterz!


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